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Read a book the other day where the protagonist, who has been pretty morally grey, accidentally immolates an opponent during a fight and is mortified. There’s a line to the effect of ‘she no longer wished to be the one who decided whether he lived or died.’ Which I liked. Generally dislike the YA trend of just totally unflappable stone-cold badasses who just don’t react to things LOL.
@@marinainacio7743 it's called 'ratha's creature' in 'the book of the named' series. it's an old xenofiction series about a fictional race of prehistoric feline and their sort of gradual coming into a more advanced society. think a somewhat more mature warrior cats (which predates warriors by several decades).
@@NeidaTeresaA Clockwork Reader theorized that it’s Howl’s Moving Castle fanfic and that was one of her main points to back it up funnily enough. So it might just be there bc of that.
@@theburgersystem126 Tam Lin’s name comes from a Scottish ballad and when he’s rescued at the end the Faerie Queen she says she should’ve replaced his heart with stone in several versions, so more likely a reference to that i’ve never read this but ngl the first time the plot of acotar was described to me my first thought was “ok so not a retelling of the ballad of tam lin then”
i noticed that most of the people who disliked the series (myself included) absolutely LOVED lucien… which is both funny and sad because my guy gets paid dust for the rest of the series 😭
I just started the video (only five minutes in) and went to the comment section. THIS comment!!! I still have 20 pages I’m trying to suffer through but Lucien has been the only character I’ve liked this entire book.
At least with Katniss she was suffering from extreme PTSD and didn't understand the social dynamics of the victors nor did she know how much she could trust them. She was surrounded by nature and the will to survive and so her mind was elsewhere. She didn't understand her feelings for Peeta because their relationship was extremely unconventional and most of the feelings she had towards him were that of comfort and not butterflies which is how she was likely taught love was. Not to mention constant stress and danger looming over her. She wasn't really given a life that allowed her to comprehend romance either. She was sixteen after all. But this girl had plenty of time in luxury and thought. She doesn't have an excuse lol.
when i was closer to the beginning of this video, i was like "feyra... naming your human protagonist after the fey? she's obviously going to turn into one" and i was RIGHT when you were describing how she loses her mortality i was hollering. it's the worst foreshadowing any book has ever tried to pull. why is feyra even a name in this universe, you would think that would be considered some kind of terrible luck to name a child after these seemingly wicked and evil beings. awesome video
Yeah first of all the trope of humans turning into other species especially immortal ones, is so awful I hate it more than anything in this world I swear 😂 Second, even if she didn't change species (did I tell you how problematic it is and how I hate it already? Well I'll tell you some more!) then having a name like that is pretty dumb anyway
@@KateeAngelcan I ask why do you hate it so much? I know the trope but I don’t really care about it (I mean, if it happens, at least I want a logical explanation, if it doesn’t, whatever) so I’m curious of why it’s so problematic
@@mirilovesyou2518 like imagine having a character turning into someone of another race, and that means they now better fit into society and have easier life. All humanoid species in fantasy and sci fi are basically so similar to humans, that you can view changing species as changing race. It is not the same as having a character turn into a cat or a bird, for example
She literally went through hell for a riddle I solved as soon as I read it, I almost skipped to the end of the damn book LMAO. She could have at least made it a hard riddle she's meant to not be able to solve like something a faerie would know but not a human. Like make the answer a flower that only grows far north of the wall or something
@@emackenzie NO BECAUSE SAME??! Like it was so obvious that “love” was the answer 😭😭. And she literally recognized that amarantha was definitely tricking her with the wording of the bargain and she didn’t even TRY to get clarification or negotiate like she later did w Rhys…🙄
And Rhys was in her head urging her too stab them, but RIGHT after, became the objectively conniving, deceptive, and vengeful lord (also inflicted pain and the threat of not saving her life on her to get her to submit to being indentured to her forever) was the one who is said to have “healed” her from it. He conveniently has an excuse for everything, while demonizing the one he hates and sought to torment (despite the torment he was already enduring). How can we believe anything this mind altering, dark, deceptive man says? Or this young girl’s short term interpretation of him? Even crazier, Tamlin actually has every reason to be tormented and believe that his love is being mind altered by this man with a very dark history and intentional reputation. While it brought the beast out in him (which he has to deal with and heal- think he did by immediately saving Rhys and wanting her to be happy), I think the parallel is that Rhys brought out the beast in her, too.
I WAS LIKE THERE IS NO WAY IT IS “LOVE” BECAUSE THAT IS JUST TOO DAMN SAD AND PREDICTABLE… Then in the last few pages I chucked the book across the room.
I genuinely hate how popular these books are, and when people uphold it as being feminist, or peak romance - acotar is simply for straight people who never read fics off of ao3. Not to mention the amount of repetition in these things. God Sarah, we get it, you think you did something. 😭😭
@@wooogie672I think that's honestly what's saved me so much money in the long run. I just have to hear the description and realize there's stuff that I've read for free that's similar if noy better
omg same I don’t understand why this is so popular, I tried reading the 1st book but it was so boring that I just went straight to ao3 and picked up a fanfic that was a million times better if this is a good book or a romance for someone 😢😮 I pity those people, and yeah they are probably very straight, and use salt and pepper as all their spices as well
The most hilarious part of this series is that the King of Hybern, the MAIN VILLAIN who drives the plot for the next two books, never gets named. He is just “the king of that country”. That should tell potential readers everything they need to know if they’re wondering whether these books are for them. 😂
Thing is, she’s done this before but SO much better!! In her other series, TOG, one of the villains is named just the “King of Adarlan”. But there’s is a plot behind this. It makes so much sense in the end and it is actually really cool. In ACOTAR it just feels lazy
in the last book he also doesn't tell her that her pregnancy is dangerous for a long time, and it is portrayed as good and when her sister tells her it is portrayed as a bad thing to do
right?! he's literally an abuser throughout the books, but the fans' double standards are craaaazy. they excuse everything he does just bc he has a big d lol
ugh i really hate the double standards of this book and i regretted that i continued reading it all the way to the third book. I hate Feyre and Rhysand, i prefered if we were reading at the other sister’s story not hers(forgot the name but i was talking about the other sister who’s not bitchin all the time lol)
Also yes at “you will never have to guess the motivations of a SJM character because at some point they will get on a soap box and just tell you” I think that’s a big thing that’s holding me back from really liking her books. Everything sounds good in theory but the execution is usually shallow and on the nose. There have been times when I’m reading SJM books where I start to skim because all that’s happening in my head is “I GET IT ALREADY”
I agree!! I feel like the skeleton of a good book is there and if there was any mystery or intrigue to character motivations then it might be more entertaining, but it’s just laid out so obviously it gets EXHAUSTING!
YES!!!! THIS! finally, thank you for putting it into words - i've been struggling to figure out what i'm feeling and it's exactly this. it's like, okay, just get on with it. show, don't tell. there's so much repetition and it's like dude you've said this 40 times before, i get it. you do'n't have to continually shove things down our throats in order for us to understand what's going on.
4:48 I totally agree that Fayre is a blank slate that the cishet white target audience is meant to project onto. But Katniss? Nope, I don't agree. Katniss has a flat arc, but despite that she does have some development over the course of the series. She starts out as a reluctant hero, who is only concerned about her close loved ones and has little hope for change. By the end of the series, she makes sacrifices for others she doesn't know and settles down and has a family. She has a defined personality. She's stubborn, capable, practical and quick thinking. She also suffers from PTSD. More than what I can say about the heroine of this series.
27:00 yessss omg this was one of my biggest gripes with the series overall! It felt like it didn't have a relative place in time! Like I don't expect a fantasy world to fall directly somewhere on our real world timeline, but it needs to feel coherently rooted in a period of time relative to the fantasy world! It always felt so inconsistent, like I could never tell if we were going for a medieval folklore vibe, a 18th court drama vibe, or a 2010s prom vibe with how some of those dresses were described 😭
@@NeidaTeresa no literallllyyyyy!!! The way they described her "iconic" red dress was always giving that one girl at prom who thought she was really cool for having a slit in her dress 🥲
No fr like a good example of a coherent fantasy timeline is six of crows, it’s set in the 17th century and Kerch is loosely based off the Dutch republic and ketterdam is modeled after Amsterdam and it makes sense given the plot, and there’s even things like mentions of new military weaponry like tanks which a few of the characters didn’t know what they were bc they were so new. And given that majority of places in SOC are modeled after real life countries also helps a lot in helping the setting make sense
no my rage progressively got more intense with each book by the time i got to ACOSF i felt like i needed to smoke a whole pack of cigarettes…please review all of them
The thing that bothered me THE MOST about that book was the use of male and female as a replacement for man and woman. It's weird, but OK sometimes, but not ALL THE TIME, you can't say that "someone is a good MALE" and act like it's normal. (Also the sexism, and the weird treatment of mental illness, etc)
I've read too many fantasy/sci-fi books that think replacing man and woman with "male" and "female" makes it automatically more fantasy/sci-fi. It gets so awkward, especially when you hear transphobes and sexists always using the terms for biological determinism
@@Sootielove ABSOLUTELY. Also, I didn't read for YEARS and then started with ACOTAR, for the memes and I'm just now finding out that that's a fantasy thing?? Not to be mean to the author's, but I'm gonna stay FAR away from that.
@@Zombina638 fantasy books apparently use male and female as replacement for man and woman and as someone who doesn't read a lot of fantasy it was SOOOO weird in ACOTAR, I almost dnf'ed it multiple times because it made me cringe so much 😅
I love how you can pinpoint the moment in book 1 where Sarah J Maas realized that Rhysand was a much more interesting character than Tamlin. Because he is. So she just rewrites Tamlin and hands over all that boyfriend development to Rhys.
It was hilarious to read, like watching someone in the street realise they're going in the wrong direction and do a 180 on the spot 😂 Worst was how she went "oh ok we will go with this interesting guy now, but actually, he's not bad at all and he's actually a secret superhero and loves puppies and kittens" 😂
Rhysand was so much more interesting to me when his 'mask' was his character, because it was written so genuinely that it's hard to believe it wasn't something she changed her mind about. Like, I can understand "he needs to act like an asshole to keep up appearances with Amarantha" but then why does he need to threaten Lucien's mother like four times in the same private conversation?? She retconned so much (like Amarantha suddenly just having another Daemati we never hear about again) to make him more of a 'good' character so he could be the 'perfect' love interest
Honestly, I read enough bullshit in my middle school fanfic era that I wasn't too fazed by all the essentialist weirdness, the sexism, the SA etc. but I was absolutely LIVID about that fucking riddle. I got it the moment I read it, but I figure I was being stupid and it was a misdirect. Then I managed to convince myself that SJM was actually doing her job as an author when in that 'murder the innocents or kill Tamlin' scene the fey girl started singing the lullaby. I immediately mentally apologised to SJM bc I had underestimated her with the riddle - I was so certain that the lullaby contained the answer to the riddle. The lullaby had been set up earlier when someone sang it to that fey that was mauled, and when Amarantha gave Feyra the riddle all the fey laughed, implying it was something they didn't think Feyra, a human, could figure out, and then a la Chekov's gun SJM brought the lullaby back up in the pivotal scene. I was ready to be somewhat impressed with SJM actually using basic narrative devices and foreshadowing and then... it has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FUCKING RIDDLE!!!!!! Instead it was some weird convoluted way for her to figure out Tamlin had a stone heart???
I also thought of love, but immediately discard it because I thought it was too obvious, so I did keep thinking about the riddle during the entire trials section, lol XD I had actually not thought about the lullaby hiding the answer to the riddle, but that would have been an actually great idea, I would have loved that, it would have been so more meaningful, and it would have also been a good trickery,since it would have shown Amarantha trully didn't want Feyre to win, as the answer was in a traditional/fol fairy lullaby/prayer that of course Feyre wouldn't have known. And it would also be more meaningful because, unlike Jurien, Feyre solving the riddle would have meant she DID listen to the fairies, she did accept them and pay attention to their culture and costumes and traditions, so it would have been a way to show both, Amarantha and the reader, that Feyre was indeed a worthy human.
@@goodaimshield1115 I hadn't even considered the wider narrative context of what the lullaby could mean but you are so right!!! it would 100% show the other fey that feyre cares about fey culture enough to pay attention to what she has learned in her time there.
I'm so glad you saved the riddle for after describing the trials. Really drives home how much could have been avoided if Feyre had, if not immediately then surely the course of however many weeks or months she's UTM, at any point realized the answer to a riddle that a twelve-year-old would roll their eyes and scoff at for being too heavy-handed and obvious.
Feyre was no the badass hero girl Sarah thought she was. I listened to the dramatized version of the books and Feyre was constantly in her self-loathing and the shit was hilarious. "Im just a weak illiterate human" also when Amarantha said in her Juvenile voice, "So you don't know how to read, hahn?" Here's a challenge for you I was through with these thangs.
As a writer and developmental editor with 12+years of experience, I have wanted nothing more than to take a red pen to this series. It needs work because honestly this series really isn't that good, and lacks developmental guidance amongst so many other things. I've read most of the first book and yea, it's messy, repetitive, snobby, and overall displaced as personally, it feels more befitting of New Adult due to the content, and honestly I haven't even touched the rampant sexism, abelism, undertones of homophobia, and how this series *desperately needs good sensitivity readers* and so much more. Sorry for the rant, this series gets to me. 😅
ok i was actually really into the first book lol. towards the end though started to feel a bit meh. then i started the second book of the series and couldnt get past 5 chapters. dropped it then and there and never looked back
I only listened to it in audiobook, so I could clean the house while listening to it because I was curious about them but not willing to give them any of my reading time and I was right. They are so cliche and terrible
Oh, sister, I knew the answer was "love" as soon as Amarantha mentioned that Feyre had to answer a riddle! 😂 I literally thought to myself... "wow, the author is gonna be real cheesy and make a long-winded poem all about LOVE..." and JUST LIKE YOU I knew the exact answer within the first line or two!!! 😂😂😂 ALSO.. I totally agree with you: I liked reading the progression of Tamlin's and Feyre's relationship, but after returning to the human world, I really didn't want to be bothered by the trials! I just wanted to know what the HECK was going on, lol! I really appreciate how you summarized this for others-I only wish that I had seen your video before actually reading the first book. 😅 Cheers to you! 💕
YESSS THE first thing i thought of when i read that book was "huh. this is... this is katniss?" and then for the rest of the novel nothing about that aspect of her life (being a hunter who is used to provide for her family) is ever brought up again.
I also love LOVE Lucien and I am so happy I am valid in this. For some reason, my friends and I have SUCH different types that every time they tell me which man they like in a book I’m thinking, “Oh girl…you need therapy.” So far I am glad Lucien is a favourite amongst the majority of us. I will say though, Sara does like to ruin a man so I'm scared. If he breaks my heart, no he didn't.
omg "The setting in this book is really nebulus. Colonial america... england... 1600s france... idk but I know there are queens and courts and the women wear long dresses and then think about a bitch like katniss everdeen trying to survive in that world" this quote and then the spongebob worm reference had me howling 🤣🤣🤣
I'm so glad you did this because I NEVER EVER get tired of acotar slander and this was so funny 😭 my leeeeeeast favorite thing in any piece of media is when the solution is ~love~ (looking @ u harry potter) so that riddle really murdered me (not as much as it murdered feyre tho amiright)
I honestly don't mind when the answer is love so long as it's written well. But holy shit does SJM not know _how_ to write love. Every relationship is just simmering sexual tension and "I would kill and die for you" and little to no actual _romance_
Oh my god this makes me happy because all my friends LOVED this book so I havent been able to rant about it myself. I spent MOST of my time reading this book trying to convince myself that I liked it. The straw that broke the camels back for me was the "his heart is stone" revelation. What???? They produce this mystery as if its something super important. Alis told her that even though every other part of the curse had run its course and could be talked about now, that there was ONE big mystery still left. Something so important that Feyre couldnt be allowed to know. But there was literally NO REASON for that to be a secret in the first place! I mean imagine if Tamlin looked over and told Feyre that his heart was made of stone while they were just chilling at the mansion. What would that impact? What would Feyre be able to do with that information?? NOTHING. Its secrecy ONLY MATTERS in the context of Amaranthas plan, which was not even conceived of during the whole time that this "secret" was supposed to be kept from Feyre. It was literally added retroactively to give Feyre a reason to look smart and come to some grand conclusion on her own, and to me its quite possibly dumber than the riddle = love stupidity.
When she died in the end but got brought back to life as a faerie bc she was tethered to the person she loved I was like “oh this is twilight but faeries lol” like we already knew but like WOW that’s so similar
My toxic trait is I enjoy people roasting books that I absolutely love 🤣 No but seriously just found you on my recommended & you’ve gained a new subscriber! You’re doing great 💜
Can we also talk about the lines in this book??? Like how Tamlin asks how Feyre is able to hunt because she can’t READ?????? Or “his words caressed my bones”. What IS that??? Or that Feyre taught herself to swim by watching. Or that she tries to teach herself to read with no knowledge of the phonetics or letters or anything. Sure. And why are there so many loopholes for this girl? Why is there like a “die or else sleepover” clause in the magic? Why is there a death or RIDDLE option? Why so much deus ex machina?? I laughed out loud at this book so many times! And the riddle. The riddle makes me so mad 😂 I was like.. Sarah. Girl. I feel like Twilight was Shakespeare compared to this.
My mom was gushing about these books, and told me that I might like them… she’s been trying to get me to read them, and when I told her “nah”, she hits me with the “well YOU haven’t read them, so you can’t judge them yet”. MOTHER. I DON’T THINK SO
I was doom-scrolling on here looking for something to watch, and I didn’t wanna watch anything. But I saw your thumbnail and my apathy went away. I’m glad I came over here and watched your video!
OMG your mix of hilarious synopsis/ASMR/wine rant/impressions had me dying. So glad I stumbled onto your channel. Very surprised you don’t have more subscribers. Keep the book reviews coming!
Immediately subscribed!!!!! I genuinely hate how popular this series is because it is mediocre and the booktok girlies hype up the WORST books like omfg. Give indie authors a chance! I will watch and enjoy the whole hour of this youtube because I live for SJM and all of her books being bashed, same with CoHo
I can't wait for the reviews of the remaining books in the series. I read ACoTaR a few years ago, when I was in college, and gave it 3 stars, it seemed way too mediocre for me. I never continued on with the series. Please, do reviews for the other books. You're awesome! 😊 Edit: typos.
I’m so glad I found the place where people don’t think these books. As a struggling writer, seeing books like these get published and have a huge worshipping fan base is depressing. And now HBO is making it into a series…..
Prythian/Hybern and all of that is set in the U.K. and when I say "set in the U.K." I mean "literally SJM took a map of England and slapped new names on top" because it’s completely unaltered
I’m listening to the audiobook and the main character is sooooo EXHAUSTING!!! Like… she’s so boring and she goes on and on about a family that doesn’t seem to give a shite about her and yet she wants to go back. Also, it annoys me how in almost every chapter she’s in some type of danger and must be protected… 🫠🫠🫠. I don’t know if it’s just me but this book overall is just boring and nothing ever happens while stuff happens at the same time.
I just wanted to say thank you for this 😭 My friends have been OBSESSED with this series and won’t stop talking about it and I’ve refused to read it because every time they try to explain the story to me I get confused to how this series could be appealing to anyone 😂 So thank you in justifying my refusal
You actually make this book sound better than it was haha. In listening it occurred to me that the trilogy was probably one book that got drawn out into 3 because she was now a star author. I actually like the general ideas and world building, but the execution was...painful. I did read the whole trilogy, I regret it. I want it to be made into a movie or something because it can only be made better.
THANK YOU you said everything i felt and more. this book is almost insultingly bad, like sjm changed her mind about the plot/love interests but didn't bother to go back to edit. like she just wrote a straight first draft with no editing and got it published somehow
This video is hilarious, informative, and very, very enjoyable. I read ACOTAR and enjoyed it, it was the following books that disappointed me and made me cringe. I still can't bring myself to read the fourth book because I genuinely just don't care. Thank you so much for sharing your opinions on this book!
I’m excited to watch your video! A friend recommended ACOTAR to me (along with every other breathing being on this planet) and I decided to try the first book out. I reread the first chapter becuase I couldn’t believe how everyone found this book so amazing. I liked the world building, the settings, and pretty much everything except the characters. Especially the main protagonist… she came off as a YA character who was naturally the best at everything, smarter than everyone, completely independent, beautiful, and every other good quality under the sun. It extremely frustrated me and I had to put the book down. Good book for sure for teenagers (if there wasn’t so much humping) but the adult women I see raving about it just need to find a good series on AO3.
The riddle is so obvious. Of course the answer is going to be love. The riddle could be "Skibidi bappity do" and the answer would be love. That's just how these stories work.
🤔 IDK, could the answer to the riddle be...LOVE. 😂 SJM'S heroines are Always red shirts. 🤨Too stupid to live. SCOTTY, beam her down. She's not going to make it back to the Enterprise, I'm afraid. 😉
I read the first 3 books and i enjoyed them so much - but in the same way you enjoy trash tv. I hate it but it keeps me so entertained. I loved your review
I really recommend the web comic Atonmen. It reads like a book. It's human x creature romance done right. Gargoyle and human woman. And it feels like an original story. Blew these new romance/light erotica out of the water.
First I watched your video on the second book, loved it. Now watching this one. I really needed this kind of perspective. Like I enjoyed books a lot and my escapism was satisfied but lots of things were handled badly. When I went into fandom I just saw lots of toxic rants about ships that don't actually matter. Because Rhysand is shit. I liked him for a while with all of questionable 'feminism', but the last book... nope. He is just like Tamlin, but Maas likes him.
He is even worse than Tamlin, he didn't even turn controlling cause of PTSD, he just learned his wife was pregnant. He is like one of those men IRL who switch into being controlling toxic abusers when a woman becomes dependent on them (usually during pregnancy)
@@KateeAngelAnd Feyre just shrugs like that’s Rhys 🤷🏾 It’s also funny that she was unsettled by the idea of being a housewife at the spring court but is basically a housewife after the trilogy is over, decorating and shopping and shit.
Found you through my recommended lists and never been sooo lucky! I listened to this video on the way home from work and I was laughing so hard! All of your comments and gripes are so on point 🥲😂 it’s funny cause I read the books and actually enjoyed it but it’s so hilarious seeing it from other people’s pov (and realizing all these problematic things in it)
Omg, thank you for this. I have so many friends that love this series and I got so excited by all the positive reviews. I bought the first 4 ebooks totally hyped. And then I barely got through the first book and only finished the second book because everyone swore it would get better. I started reading the first few chapters of the third book and completely gave up for good. So now I feel like a snob when I tell people I hate this series. I also think it is completely fine to like the books, btw., but I just cannot pretend to like the series or the writing. Your video was so funny! I also think that the first book felt like two very different stories. The pacing was out of control. 😂
girl I am so excited this popped up in my recommended because I haven't watched a review yet BUT I remember some girl in my creative writing course bringing this book to class
you are very funny! I never planned on reading this book, I just know my sister and her roommate love the whole series, but now Im thinking of reading it
I just "read" the first book (via audiobook) and I'm almost surprised that Maas wasn't sued by Robin McKinley's publisher for ripping off Rose Daughter 🤔 I understand that it's a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling but this was SO similar. When it comes to fairy tale adaptations, I much prefer Robin McKinley, Jane Yolen, or Gail Carson Levine. Highly recommend any of their novels over this! I'll probably go through the other books in this series to pass to time, but as a huge fairy tale fan I wasn't overly impressed by this either.
I heard this series was possibly a self-insert of The Black Jewels Trilogy & I wonder if I’d enjoy that one, because this just wasn’t for me. But I’ve heard good things about the original inspiration.
I started the first book out of morbid curiosity and am now essentially trying to finish it out of spite (I’ve been struggling for 3 months off and on) and your recapping them may be the only thing that pushes me to finish bc this video was so entertaining Edit: or maybe this was enough and I don’t need to see the rest of the book with my own eyes lol
babes I’m waiting in bated breath for your next video. mist n fury takes a huge ol turn imo,,, for better or for worse, idk, but definitely more entertaining than the first book. I don’t think I could read the first book again tbh, but the next ones are….interesting. I love your Nesta take tho. So many people in the acotar fandom hate her (for valid reasons prob) and love Feyre but nawt me ~ I love how you think Feyre is not very smart because I felt similarly looool she’s my least fav sjm protagonist by a lot. Anyways, you got a follow from meeee, great video
No, absolutely, I hate this book sm. The world building is info dumping in one glob of conversation?? Everyone looks the same, but not? Every male in this book is henry cavill with new hair. Every female is skinny, fair and flawlessly skined girl from wattpad 2014 ff. Amarantha slowly tortured clare as soon as she saw her, but with feyre she gives her a chance to prove herself first bc plot. Also why is Amarantha this magnificent, also flawlessly skinned, pale, snow-white-ish woman who, in my head, looks like feyre but new hair, instead of like a war brute with a heavy build seeing as she was one of the cruelest faeries in the war. WHY DO THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME. And her world building left the spring court feeling like a mansion on a grassy plane, with a forest a few steps away (just me?). The big bad fairy king just exists and is bad bc he's bad. The sexual tension between tamlin and feyre felt forced and, yes, assault-like. I cannot imagine someone consenting to a fxck-ready fairy after almost being rxped by three goblin-like fairies from the night-court just bc he's standing there and wants her *now*. Kudos to Lucien, the one with personality who was also my fav, I never made it past the first book sorry 🫠🫠🫠
I so agree with you on the world-building and the badly paced romance of Tamlin and Feyre. I only got interested in the book when she went to the trials. Literally was bored through the first 2/3 but I wanted to see why my friends loved it. I still don’t know. 😂
47:57 After the descriptions of these parties, this is where I couldn't stomach any more of it. It's just the way Maas writes the loss of bodily autonomy that feels at odds with what is depicted. There's a disonance between the things depicted and how it's depicted.
i read this book and i remember getting to the riddle and immediately going "its love" and then also immediately going "it's probably something else because that's just way too obvious the book isn't gonna be like that" and lo and behold. i was right and sjm is not as smart as she thinks she is.
It's sad just how much people uphold Rhysand as this perfect man when he is literally the embodiment of your really, really bad ex. And your friends abusive hubbies that hooked up when one was 15 and other 20. I swear Nesta is the only one sane, aside from Lucien. I would say that Tamlin is better then Rhys because Lucien calls the mf out on his behavior, while in the IC everyone worships the ground Rhys walk on. Rhys reminds me of friend hubbies definitely. Like everything is forgiven because they are handsome as heck, has big d, is rich. They don't see Feyre can have only friends Rhys approves off which is no one. He is literally cutting people close to her and those who can see him for who he really is. I swear to god Feyre not ending up with Lucien was a crime. She would be so lucky and it would be divergence from mate trop where best friend of potential love interest get's the protagonist.
Ngl the way miss Sarah writes her smut scenes reminds me of when I’m trying to find good M/M romance ( I’m a trans man) and I gotta like search super hard on kindle unlimited cause it’s all written by straight women writing under names that sound like it could be men like H. J Smith or whatever. She gives off the same energy with her scenes as them cause it just doesn’t seem like good sex? Like in some of the romances I’ve found they use wild shit like Vaseline as lube or god forbid none like good lord at least do some research before you write these I’m begging and praying lmao.
Idk I used to have a massive Sarah J mass kick a few years ago and the sex scenes are what is burned into my mind. The term “velvet wrapped steel” haunts me to this day. I liked some things in the books but I disliked more things than I liked so I stopped reading
@@obi-wan-pierogi I resonate with you on the trying to find mlm books written by actual gay men part but VELVET WRAPPED STEEEEL?????!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!? 😭😭😭😭😭
Honestly, I think the only reason I managed to read past acotar was beacuse i was promised it gets better. Also the ending manged to peak my intrest somewhat. Had I read this independently? Without a couple trusted people telling me it gets better? I think I would have stopped reading sooner.
Im convinced people who love ACOTAR are people who dont read a lot lol. Like what. Also i read the riddle ans immediatly was like "its going to be some stupid shit like love isnt it" and when it was i howled with laughter. Like be fr bro 😩
I loved this review! I have not and have no intention of reading this series, but I love your energy enough to watch your reviews of the series. Now I have an idea of what my friends are talking about when they’re discussing this. 😂😂
oh my gosh, I felt the same way about the book!! After she went back to the human world I was getting so checked out 🥲 I bought the whole series when I was still really enjoying it in the beginning. now I'm thinking I ✨️should✨️ continue the series. your video is reminding me of all the random stuff that happened at the end of book one 😅
I honestly commend anyone who can make it through this series. I was listening on audiobook while I was working so I got through acotar just because i was interested in how it ended. Couldn't get past chapter 15 in the second book. Was awful and the character assassination was insane
God I literally recorded and didn’t post a rant about this book and you said all the exact things I said right down to “Feyre is dumb AND NOT BECAUSE SHE CANT READ” lmfaoo
One of my problems with this book was that none of the characters were fleshed out, and if they were it was poorly done. There are a lot of holes and twists that were just random and often caught me off guard. The series, to me felt, too… flat, predictable, and fast paced with certain parts and too slow on many others.
I read this book for the first time a few months ago. No disrespect to anyone who enjoys it, but I absolutely hated it. I found it so boring and predictable, and it was so long! It felt like two different stories smashed together, and I don’t think they blended well. For so many pages, not much happened. Lucien is the best boy though.
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Feyre should be way more distressed with the fact that she killed and skinned someone. That's genuinely horrifying.
well, fairies in this series are so annoying (and sexist, and always horny and creepy) that I have hard time feeling any empathy for them
Read a book the other day where the protagonist, who has been pretty morally grey, accidentally immolates an opponent during a fight and is mortified. There’s a line to the effect of ‘she no longer wished to be the one who decided whether he lived or died.’ Which I liked. Generally dislike the YA trend of just totally unflappable stone-cold badasses who just don’t react to things LOL.
@@pharoahcaraboo9610I'm interested, which book is this?
@@marinainacio7743 it's called 'ratha's creature' in 'the book of the named' series. it's an old xenofiction series about a fictional race of prehistoric feline and their sort of gradual coming into a more advanced society. think a somewhat more mature warrior cats (which predates warriors by several decades).
@@pharoahcaraboo9610 where was this in my childhood after Animorphs left me starving for more, seriously.
Ok so she’s able to figure out Tamlyn has a stone heart but CANT ANSWER THE RIDDLE?!?! 😒people have died feyra.
You have really cracked the case wide open with this one because it didn’t even MAKE SENSE that he had a stone heart!!
@@NeidaTeresaA Clockwork Reader theorized that it’s Howl’s Moving Castle fanfic and that was one of her main points to back it up funnily enough. So it might just be there bc of that.
@@theburgersystem126yeah I see it
The fact that Feyre (narrating) doesn't know how to spell the word "position" yet knows words like "effervescent"💀
@@theburgersystem126 Tam Lin’s name comes from a Scottish ballad and when he’s rescued at the end the Faerie Queen she says she should’ve replaced his heart with stone in several versions, so more likely a reference to that
i’ve never read this but ngl the first time the plot of acotar was described to me my first thought was “ok so not a retelling of the ballad of tam lin then”
i noticed that most of the people who disliked the series (myself included) absolutely LOVED lucien… which is both funny and sad because my guy gets paid dust for the rest of the series 😭
I just started the video (only five minutes in) and went to the comment section. THIS comment!!! I still have 20 pages I’m trying to suffer through but Lucien has been the only character I’ve liked this entire book.
Me to and I actually felt sorry for tamlin
I absolutely LOVED Lucien.. but could not get through the second book… I was so dissapointed that it is just a smut. Nothing else 😂
If nobody got me I know Lucien got me...
The worst character assasination I’ve ever seen in any story like why did they have to do him like that 😭😭😭
At least with Katniss she was suffering from extreme PTSD and didn't understand the social dynamics of the victors nor did she know how much she could trust them. She was surrounded by nature and the will to survive and so her mind was elsewhere.
She didn't understand her feelings for Peeta because their relationship was extremely unconventional and most of the feelings she had towards him were that of comfort and not butterflies which is how she was likely taught love was. Not to mention constant stress and danger looming over her. She wasn't really given a life that allowed her to comprehend romance either. She was sixteen after all.
But this girl had plenty of time in luxury and thought. She doesn't have an excuse lol.
If Katniss has a million defenders, I’m one of them. If she has only one defender, I am that one, and if she has no defenders, I am deadddd
omg reading that comment felt like a relief compared to listening acotars plot
acotar and hunger games are light years away from each other
when i was closer to the beginning of this video, i was like "feyra... naming your human protagonist after the fey? she's obviously going to turn into one" and i was RIGHT when you were describing how she loses her mortality i was hollering. it's the worst foreshadowing any book has ever tried to pull. why is feyra even a name in this universe, you would think that would be considered some kind of terrible luck to name a child after these seemingly wicked and evil beings. awesome video
Ya know, I never put two and two together. Now that you say that… hmm 🤔
Yeah first of all the trope of humans turning into other species especially immortal ones, is so awful I hate it more than anything in this world I swear 😂
Second, even if she didn't change species (did I tell you how problematic it is and how I hate it already? Well I'll tell you some more!) then having a name like that is pretty dumb anyway
@@KateeAngelcan I ask why do you hate it so much? I know the trope but I don’t really care about it (I mean, if it happens, at least I want a logical explanation, if it doesn’t, whatever) so I’m curious of why it’s so problematic
@@mirilovesyou2518 like imagine having a character turning into someone of another race, and that means they now better fit into society and have easier life. All humanoid species in fantasy and sci fi are basically so similar to humans, that you can view changing species as changing race. It is not the same as having a character turn into a cat or a bird, for example
It's even worse when you pronounce it as it's its spelled
Feyre
Fey (like fae)
re (re like recycling)
Fairy
LITERALLY JUST FAIRY
I cannot believe this stupid MC actually stabbed and killed two innocent people bc she couldn’t figure out that riddle 😭😭😭😭
She literally went through hell for a riddle I solved as soon as I read it, I almost skipped to the end of the damn book LMAO. She could have at least made it a hard riddle she's meant to not be able to solve like something a faerie would know but not a human. Like make the answer a flower that only grows far north of the wall or something
@@emackenzie NO BECAUSE SAME??! Like it was so obvious that “love” was the answer 😭😭. And she literally recognized that amarantha was definitely tricking her with the wording of the bargain and she didn’t even TRY to get clarification or negotiate like she later did w Rhys…🙄
And Rhys was in her head urging her too stab them, but RIGHT after, became the objectively conniving, deceptive, and vengeful lord (also inflicted pain and the threat of not saving her life on her to get her to submit to being indentured to her forever) was the one who is said to have “healed” her from it.
He conveniently has an excuse for everything, while demonizing the one he hates and sought to torment (despite the torment he was already enduring). How can we believe anything this mind altering, dark, deceptive man says? Or this young girl’s short term interpretation of him?
Even crazier, Tamlin actually has every reason to be tormented and believe that his love is being mind altered by this man with a very dark history and intentional reputation. While it brought the beast out in him (which he has to deal with and heal- think he did by immediately saving Rhys and wanting her to be happy), I think the parallel is that Rhys brought out the beast in her, too.
I WAS LIKE THERE IS NO WAY IT IS “LOVE” BECAUSE THAT IS JUST TOO DAMN SAD AND PREDICTABLE… Then in the last few pages I chucked the book across the room.
@@rosenose819 I legit thought well the answer can't be love so I just must be stupid and can't figure out the riddle.
I genuinely hate how popular these books are, and when people uphold it as being feminist, or peak romance - acotar is simply for straight people who never read fics off of ao3.
Not to mention the amount of repetition in these things. God Sarah, we get it, you think you did something. 😭😭
every book that goes viral on booktok is for people who don’t go on ao3 🤣
@@wooogie672I think that's honestly what's saved me so much money in the long run. I just have to hear the description and realize there's stuff that I've read for free that's similar if noy better
I have found my people
omg same
I don’t understand why this is so popular, I tried reading the 1st book but it was so boring that I just went straight to ao3 and picked up a fanfic that was a million times better
if this is a good book or a romance for someone 😢😮
I pity those people, and yeah they are probably very straight, and use salt and pepper as all their spices as well
yeah most smut fics are better btw. and for free! lol
The most hilarious part of this series is that the King of Hybern, the MAIN VILLAIN who drives the plot for the next two books, never gets named. He is just “the king of that country”. That should tell potential readers everything they need to know if they’re wondering whether these books are for them. 😂
Thing is, she’s done this before but SO much better!! In her other series, TOG, one of the villains is named just the “King of Adarlan”. But there’s is a plot behind this. It makes so much sense in the end and it is actually really cool. In ACOTAR it just feels lazy
I 100% believe that she added that bit in later to explain why he doesn’t have a name.
She has a nasty habit of just... straight up not naming people. How long are we going to call Lucien's mother "the Lady of Autumn" for?
I HATED HIS ASS SO MUCH
LOL
it's always crazy to me that rhysand sexually abuses feyre in the first book but it ends up being fine actually because he's a secret feminist
in the last book he also doesn't tell her that her pregnancy is dangerous for a long time, and it is portrayed as good and when her sister tells her it is portrayed as a bad thing to do
right?! he's literally an abuser throughout the books, but the fans' double standards are craaaazy. they excuse everything he does just bc he has a big d lol
ugh i really hate the double standards of this book and i regretted that i continued reading it all the way to the third book. I hate Feyre and Rhysand, i prefered if we were reading at the other sister’s story not hers(forgot the name but i was talking about the other sister who’s not bitchin all the time lol)
Maas grandma is beyond biased about that jerk Rhysand
frfr
Also yes at “you will never have to guess the motivations of a SJM character because at some point they will get on a soap box and just tell you”
I think that’s a big thing that’s holding me back from really liking her books. Everything sounds good in theory but the execution is usually shallow and on the nose.
There have been times when I’m reading SJM books where I start to skim because all that’s happening in my head is “I GET IT ALREADY”
I agree!! I feel like the skeleton of a good book is there and if there was any mystery or intrigue to character motivations then it might be more entertaining, but it’s just laid out so obviously it gets EXHAUSTING!
Yes! Like I just wish she would trust her readers 😢😢
Wow she really does tell don't show
YES!!!! THIS! finally, thank you for putting it into words - i've been struggling to figure out what i'm feeling and it's exactly this. it's like, okay, just get on with it. show, don't tell. there's so much repetition and it's like dude you've said this 40 times before, i get it. you do'n't have to continually shove things down our throats in order for us to understand what's going on.
i’m a fan of the idea so seeing videos like these gives me the urge to rewrite the series and post it on ao3
4:48 I totally agree that Fayre is a blank slate that the cishet white target audience is meant to project onto. But Katniss? Nope, I don't agree. Katniss has a flat arc, but despite that she does have some development over the course of the series. She starts out as a reluctant hero, who is only concerned about her close loved ones and has little hope for change. By the end of the series, she makes sacrifices for others she doesn't know and settles down and has a family. She has a defined personality. She's stubborn, capable, practical and quick thinking. She also suffers from PTSD. More than what I can say about the heroine of this series.
i was looking for this comment!! katniss grows so much
Katniss and Fayre are light years away (Katniss has character)
27:00 yessss omg this was one of my biggest gripes with the series overall! It felt like it didn't have a relative place in time! Like I don't expect a fantasy world to fall directly somewhere on our real world timeline, but it needs to feel coherently rooted in a period of time relative to the fantasy world! It always felt so inconsistent, like I could never tell if we were going for a medieval folklore vibe, a 18th court drama vibe, or a 2010s prom vibe with how some of those dresses were described 😭
Not the 2010s prom vibes 😂 Now I'm picturing Mor in Sherri Hill LOL
@@NeidaTeresa no literallllyyyyy!!! The way they described her "iconic" red dress was always giving that one girl at prom who thought she was really cool for having a slit in her dress 🥲
No fr like a good example of a coherent fantasy timeline is six of crows, it’s set in the 17th century and Kerch is loosely based off the Dutch republic and ketterdam is modeled after Amsterdam and it makes sense given the plot, and there’s even things like mentions of new military weaponry like tanks which a few of the characters didn’t know what they were bc they were so new. And given that majority of places in SOC are modeled after real life countries also helps a lot in helping the setting make sense
no my rage progressively got more intense with each book by the time i got to ACOSF i felt like i needed to smoke a whole pack of cigarettes…please review all of them
I had to take a break halfway through ACOSF..... how are these books getting longer but less and less is happening 🤢
I’m trying to read the fourth book and. I just don’t know if I can.
@@luvLinsthe 4th book is the shortest but probably took me the longest 😩
"So much happens and yet nothing happens" is the whole damn series honestly XD
The thing that bothered me THE MOST about that book was the use of male and female as a replacement for man and woman. It's weird, but OK sometimes, but not ALL THE TIME, you can't say that "someone is a good MALE" and act like it's normal. (Also the sexism, and the weird treatment of mental illness, etc)
It’s so gender essentialist 🤢
?
I've read too many fantasy/sci-fi books that think replacing man and woman with "male" and "female" makes it automatically more fantasy/sci-fi. It gets so awkward, especially when you hear transphobes and sexists always using the terms for biological determinism
@@Sootielove ABSOLUTELY. Also, I didn't read for YEARS and then started with ACOTAR, for the memes and I'm just now finding out that that's a fantasy thing?? Not to be mean to the author's, but I'm gonna stay FAR away from that.
@@Zombina638 fantasy books apparently use male and female as replacement for man and woman and as someone who doesn't read a lot of fantasy it was SOOOO weird in ACOTAR, I almost dnf'ed it multiple times because it made me cringe so much 😅
I love how you can pinpoint the moment in book 1 where Sarah J Maas realized that Rhysand was a much more interesting character than Tamlin. Because he is. So she just rewrites Tamlin and hands over all that boyfriend development to Rhys.
Tamlin had potential tho
It was hilarious to read, like watching someone in the street realise they're going in the wrong direction and do a 180 on the spot 😂
Worst was how she went "oh ok we will go with this interesting guy now, but actually, he's not bad at all and he's actually a secret superhero and loves puppies and kittens" 😂
@@KayDI haven’t read ACOTAR but that sounds exactly like what happened with Chaol and Rowan lol
Rhysand was so much more interesting to me when his 'mask' was his character, because it was written so genuinely that it's hard to believe it wasn't something she changed her mind about. Like, I can understand "he needs to act like an asshole to keep up appearances with Amarantha" but then why does he need to threaten Lucien's mother like four times in the same private conversation?? She retconned so much (like Amarantha suddenly just having another Daemati we never hear about again) to make him more of a 'good' character so he could be the 'perfect' love interest
EWWW
I accidentally stumbled upon a positive review of ACOTAR and I needed to cleanse my pallet with a proper rant. Thanks!
Honestly, I read enough bullshit in my middle school fanfic era that I wasn't too fazed by all the essentialist weirdness, the sexism, the SA etc. but I was absolutely LIVID about that fucking riddle. I got it the moment I read it, but I figure I was being stupid and it was a misdirect. Then I managed to convince myself that SJM was actually doing her job as an author when in that 'murder the innocents or kill Tamlin' scene the fey girl started singing the lullaby. I immediately mentally apologised to SJM bc I had underestimated her with the riddle - I was so certain that the lullaby contained the answer to the riddle. The lullaby had been set up earlier when someone sang it to that fey that was mauled, and when Amarantha gave Feyra the riddle all the fey laughed, implying it was something they didn't think Feyra, a human, could figure out, and then a la Chekov's gun SJM brought the lullaby back up in the pivotal scene. I was ready to be somewhat impressed with SJM actually using basic narrative devices and foreshadowing and then... it has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FUCKING RIDDLE!!!!!! Instead it was some weird convoluted way for her to figure out Tamlin had a stone heart???
Please you said I can excuse sexism but I draw the LINE at that riddle!
I also thought of love, but immediately discard it because I thought it was too obvious, so I did keep thinking about the riddle during the entire trials section, lol XD I had actually not thought about the lullaby hiding the answer to the riddle, but that would have been an actually great idea, I would have loved that, it would have been so more meaningful, and it would have also been a good trickery,since it would have shown Amarantha trully didn't want Feyre to win, as the answer was in a traditional/fol fairy lullaby/prayer that of course Feyre wouldn't have known. And it would also be more meaningful because, unlike Jurien, Feyre solving the riddle would have meant she DID listen to the fairies, she did accept them and pay attention to their culture and costumes and traditions, so it would have been a way to show both, Amarantha and the reader, that Feyre was indeed a worthy human.
@@goodaimshield1115 I hadn't even considered the wider narrative context of what the lullaby could mean but you are so right!!! it would 100% show the other fey that feyre cares about fey culture enough to pay attention to what she has learned in her time there.
I'm so glad you saved the riddle for after describing the trials. Really drives home how much could have been avoided if Feyre had, if not immediately then surely the course of however many weeks or months she's UTM, at any point realized the answer to a riddle that a twelve-year-old would roll their eyes and scoff at for being too heavy-handed and obvious.
I’ve read the book, but I STILL doubted myself when the riddle came up in the video because surely it couldn’t be love. That was too obvious!
i love your little scream for lucien, i was also far more interested in lucien than tamlin lmaooo 💀
And then they shelf him for the rest of the series 😭 I kept reading for nesta but I’m reading the next book for Lucien
Feyre was no the badass hero girl Sarah thought she was. I listened to the dramatized version of the books and Feyre was constantly in her self-loathing and the shit was hilarious. "Im just a weak illiterate human" also when Amarantha said in her Juvenile voice, "So you don't know how to read, hahn?" Here's a challenge for you I was through with these thangs.
As a writer and developmental editor with 12+years of experience, I have wanted nothing more than to take a red pen to this series.
It needs work because honestly this series really isn't that good, and lacks developmental guidance amongst so many other things.
I've read most of the first book and yea, it's messy, repetitive, snobby, and overall displaced as personally, it feels more befitting of New Adult due to the content, and honestly I haven't even touched the rampant sexism, abelism, undertones of homophobia, and how this series *desperately needs good sensitivity readers* and so much more. Sorry for the rant, this series gets to me. 😅
Dude the first book was MISERABLE to get through. I usually devour fantasy books but it took like a month for me.
Who opens book 1 of a new series with such a drawn out hunting scene? The first half of this book bored me to death
@@victorvale1015 FOR REAL
i started on acomaf in january and it’s now august and i’m only on chapter 16 after skipping 10 chapters bc i couldn’t give a shit
ok i was actually really into the first book lol. towards the end though started to feel a bit meh. then i started the second book of the series and couldnt get past 5 chapters. dropped it then and there and never looked back
I only listened to it in audiobook, so I could clean the house while listening to it because I was curious about them but not willing to give them any of my reading time and I was right. They are so cliche and terrible
Oh, sister, I knew the answer was "love" as soon as Amarantha mentioned that Feyre had to answer a riddle! 😂 I literally thought to myself... "wow, the author is gonna be real cheesy and make a long-winded poem all about LOVE..." and JUST LIKE YOU I knew the exact answer within the first line or two!!! 😂😂😂 ALSO.. I totally agree with you: I liked reading the progression of Tamlin's and Feyre's relationship, but after returning to the human world, I really didn't want to be bothered by the trials! I just wanted to know what the HECK was going on, lol! I really appreciate how you summarized this for others-I only wish that I had seen your video before actually reading the first book. 😅 Cheers to you! 💕
YESSS THE first thing i thought of when i read that book was "huh. this is... this is katniss?"
and then for the rest of the novel nothing about that aspect of her life (being a hunter who is used to provide for her family) is ever brought up again.
Katniss is smarter
I also love LOVE Lucien and I am so happy I am valid in this. For some reason, my friends and I have SUCH different types that every time they tell me which man they like in a book I’m thinking, “Oh girl…you need therapy.” So far I am glad Lucien is a favourite amongst the majority of us. I will say though, Sara does like to ruin a man so I'm scared. If he breaks my heart, no he didn't.
@@lindsaythemorallygay4586 * glances at the utter character assassinaton of Tamlin *
An entirely justified fear.
Its like SJM makes her characters clueless but gives the reader all the info
Thats so weird
omg "The setting in this book is really nebulus. Colonial america... england... 1600s france... idk but I know there are queens and courts and the women wear long dresses and then think about a bitch like katniss everdeen trying to survive in that world"
this quote and then the spongebob worm reference had me howling 🤣🤣🤣
losing my mind at the Feyre bullying 😭😭 you have such good comedic timing
I'm so glad you did this because I NEVER EVER get tired of acotar slander and this was so funny 😭 my leeeeeeast favorite thing in any piece of media is when the solution is ~love~ (looking @ u harry potter) so that riddle really murdered me (not as much as it murdered feyre tho amiright)
I honestly don't mind when the answer is love so long as it's written well. But holy shit does SJM not know _how_ to write love. Every relationship is just simmering sexual tension and "I would kill and die for you" and little to no actual _romance_
@@emackenzieomg this!! All they can do is fuck around on a roof, in a kitchen, wherever😂 but love? Nah not in those books--
Oh my god this makes me happy because all my friends LOVED this book so I havent been able to rant about it myself. I spent MOST of my time reading this book trying to convince myself that I liked it.
The straw that broke the camels back for me was the "his heart is stone" revelation. What???? They produce this mystery as if its something super important. Alis told her that even though every other part of the curse had run its course and could be talked about now, that there was ONE big mystery still left. Something so important that Feyre couldnt be allowed to know.
But there was literally NO REASON for that to be a secret in the first place! I mean imagine if Tamlin looked over and told Feyre that his heart was made of stone while they were just chilling at the mansion. What would that impact? What would Feyre be able to do with that information?? NOTHING.
Its secrecy ONLY MATTERS in the context of Amaranthas plan, which was not even conceived of during the whole time that this "secret" was supposed to be kept from Feyre.
It was literally added retroactively to give Feyre a reason to look smart and come to some grand conclusion on her own, and to me its quite possibly dumber than the riddle = love stupidity.
When she died in the end but got brought back to life as a faerie bc she was tethered to the person she loved I was like “oh this is twilight but faeries lol” like we already knew but like WOW that’s so similar
My toxic trait is I enjoy people roasting books that I absolutely love 🤣 No but seriously just found you on my recommended & you’ve gained a new subscriber! You’re doing great 💜
I literally just caved and read this series this month. The timing on this vid….. and the way our thoughts are so aligned omggg
Can we also talk about the lines in this book??? Like how Tamlin asks how Feyre is able to hunt because she can’t READ??????
Or “his words caressed my bones”. What IS that???
Or that Feyre taught herself to swim by watching. Or that she tries to teach herself to read with no knowledge of the phonetics or letters or anything. Sure.
And why are there so many loopholes for this girl? Why is there like a “die or else sleepover” clause in the magic? Why is there a death or RIDDLE option? Why so much deus ex machina??
I laughed out loud at this book so many times!
And the riddle. The riddle makes me so mad 😂 I was like.. Sarah. Girl.
I feel like Twilight was Shakespeare compared to this.
Thank you for confirming my opinions on Feyre’s intelligence. I couldn’t continue the series simply because I was so frustrated with her empty brain.
Can you blame her she can't read😂😂😂😂
My mom was gushing about these books, and told me that I might like them… she’s been trying to get me to read them, and when I told her “nah”, she hits me with the “well YOU haven’t read them, so you can’t judge them yet”.
MOTHER. I DON’T THINK SO
I was doom-scrolling on here looking for something to watch, and I didn’t wanna watch anything. But I saw your thumbnail and my apathy went away. I’m glad I came over here and watched your video!
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Omg the doom scrolling is so relatable 😂
OMG your mix of hilarious synopsis/ASMR/wine rant/impressions had me dying. So glad I stumbled onto your channel. Very surprised you don’t have more subscribers. Keep the book reviews coming!
Immediately subscribed!!!!! I genuinely hate how popular this series is because it is mediocre and the booktok girlies hype up the WORST books like omfg. Give indie authors a chance! I will watch and enjoy the whole hour of this youtube because I live for SJM and all of her books being bashed, same with CoHo
I can't wait for the reviews of the remaining books in the series. I read ACoTaR a few years ago, when I was in college, and gave it 3 stars, it seemed way too mediocre for me. I never continued on with the series.
Please, do reviews for the other books. You're awesome! 😊
Edit: typos.
Thank you for watching ☺ I'm halfway through editing the next one right now and hoo boy its loong
girl your energy?? I LOVE YOU, I DEVOURED THIS, I could watch you and listen to you for days, totally subscribed
How can anyone not love Lucien honestly
The second you read the riddle I was like "yeah, that's love!".
I’m so glad I found the place where people don’t think these books. As a struggling writer, seeing books like these get published and have a huge worshipping fan base is depressing. And now HBO is making it into a series…..
HBO?????
@@shannoncarolinedias6999 sorry not HBO. Hulu
Prythian/Hybern and all of that is set in the U.K. and when I say "set in the U.K." I mean "literally SJM took a map of England and slapped new names on top" because it’s completely unaltered
I’m listening to the audiobook and the main character is sooooo EXHAUSTING!!! Like… she’s so boring and she goes on and on about a family that doesn’t seem to give a shite about her and yet she wants to go back. Also, it annoys me how in almost every chapter she’s in some type of danger and must be protected… 🫠🫠🫠. I don’t know if it’s just me but this book overall is just boring and nothing ever happens while stuff happens at the same time.
I just wanted to say thank you for this 😭 My friends have been OBSESSED with this series and won’t stop talking about it and I’ve refused to read it because every time they try to explain the story to me I get confused to how this series could be appealing to anyone 😂 So thank you in justifying my refusal
You actually make this book sound better than it was haha. In listening it occurred to me that the trilogy was probably one book that got drawn out into 3 because she was now a star author. I actually like the general ideas and world building, but the execution was...painful. I did read the whole trilogy, I regret it. I want it to be made into a movie or something because it can only be made better.
THANK YOU you said everything i felt and more. this book is almost insultingly bad, like sjm changed her mind about the plot/love interests but didn't bother to go back to edit. like she just wrote a straight first draft with no editing and got it published somehow
only 16 minutes in but you dont know how excited i am to see another lucien stan !!
This video is hilarious, informative, and very, very enjoyable. I read ACOTAR and enjoyed it, it was the following books that disappointed me and made me cringe. I still can't bring myself to read the fourth book because I genuinely just don't care. Thank you so much for sharing your opinions on this book!
Lucian was the only reason I finished the first book, but not even he could get me to read the rest
READY for your videos of the next books! Love your commentary!
Before you even said imagine the Alaskan bull worm that’s exactly what I thought of😭great video! Excited for the next one!
I’m excited to watch your video! A friend recommended ACOTAR to me (along with every other breathing being on this planet) and I decided to try the first book out.
I reread the first chapter becuase I couldn’t believe how everyone found this book so amazing. I liked the world building, the settings, and pretty much everything except the characters. Especially the main protagonist… she came off as a YA character who was naturally the best at everything, smarter than everyone, completely independent, beautiful, and every other good quality under the sun. It extremely frustrated me and I had to put the book down.
Good book for sure for teenagers (if there wasn’t so much humping) but the adult women I see raving about it just need to find a good series on AO3.
The riddle is so obvious. Of course the answer is going to be love. The riddle could be "Skibidi bappity do" and the answer would be love. That's just how these stories work.
yes the spring court part is so good! the world building and writing in that section is immersive and beautiful. the rest is such caca
😂 I've Always said ACOTAR is Twilight but make it Fae, even down to the 2 🤮 love interests. I knew I clicked on your video for a reason. 🤣
🤔 IDK, could the answer to the riddle be...LOVE. 😂 SJM'S heroines are Always red shirts. 🤨Too stupid to live. SCOTTY, beam her down. She's not going to make it back to the Enterprise, I'm afraid. 😉
That riddle is giving Da Vinci Code (derogatory)
I got 1 minute in to this video and immediately hit subscribe. Incredible intro, absolutely a work of art.
Thank you so much 😭🙏🏽
the way you opened the video already had me in stitches. please this is going to be so good
I read the first 3 books and i enjoyed them so much - but in the same way you enjoy trash tv. I hate it but it keeps me so entertained. I loved your review
I’m terrible with riddles, but even I knew the answer halfway through reading it.
ur fr so underrated the way you describe things is so entertaining
I really recommend the web comic Atonmen. It reads like a book. It's human x creature romance done right. Gargoyle and human woman. And it feels like an original story. Blew these new romance/light erotica out of the water.
First I watched your video on the second book, loved it. Now watching this one. I really needed this kind of perspective. Like I enjoyed books a lot and my escapism was satisfied but lots of things were handled badly. When I went into fandom I just saw lots of toxic rants about ships that don't actually matter. Because Rhysand is shit. I liked him for a while with all of questionable 'feminism', but the last book... nope. He is just like Tamlin, but Maas likes him.
He is even worse than Tamlin, he didn't even turn controlling cause of PTSD, he just learned his wife was pregnant. He is like one of those men IRL who switch into being controlling toxic abusers when a woman becomes dependent on them (usually during pregnancy)
@@KateeAngelAnd Feyre just shrugs like that’s Rhys 🤷🏾 It’s also funny that she was unsettled by the idea of being a housewife at the spring court but is basically a housewife after the trilogy is over, decorating and shopping and shit.
jUsT liKe tAmLiN ?????! 🤡🤡🤡🤡
Kid,
Tamlin >>>>>> Rhysand
Found you through my recommended lists and never been sooo lucky! I listened to this video on the way home from work and I was laughing so hard! All of your comments and gripes are so on point 🥲😂 it’s funny cause I read the books and actually enjoyed it but it’s so hilarious seeing it from other people’s pov (and realizing all these problematic things in it)
Omg, thank you for this. I have so many friends that love this series and I got so excited by all the positive reviews. I bought the first 4 ebooks totally hyped. And then I barely got through the first book and only finished the second book because everyone swore it would get better. I started reading the first few chapters of the third book and completely gave up for good. So now I feel like a snob when I tell people I hate this series. I also think it is completely fine to like the books, btw., but I just cannot pretend to like the series or the writing.
Your video was so funny!
I also think that the first book felt like two very different stories. The pacing was out of control. 😂
I can't get over the fact that her name literally has fae in it 😭 mainstream ya fantasy is so exhausting omg
girl I am so excited this popped up in my recommended because I haven't watched a review yet BUT I remember some girl in my creative writing course bringing this book to class
THE TAMLIN IN HEAT WHISPERING😭
you are very funny! I never planned on reading this book, I just know my sister and her roommate love the whole series, but now Im thinking of reading it
I am so glad you thought of the worm from SpongeBob too! 🤣🤣🤣 that’s all I kept thinking about!
I just "read" the first book (via audiobook) and I'm almost surprised that Maas wasn't sued by Robin McKinley's publisher for ripping off Rose Daughter 🤔 I understand that it's a "Beauty and the Beast" retelling but this was SO similar. When it comes to fairy tale adaptations, I much prefer Robin McKinley, Jane Yolen, or Gail Carson Levine. Highly recommend any of their novels over this! I'll probably go through the other books in this series to pass to time, but as a huge fairy tale fan I wasn't overly impressed by this either.
I heard this series was possibly a self-insert of The Black Jewels Trilogy & I wonder if I’d enjoy that one, because this just wasn’t for me. But I’ve heard good things about the original inspiration.
I started the first book out of morbid curiosity and am now essentially trying to finish it out of spite (I’ve been struggling for 3 months off and on) and your recapping them may be the only thing that pushes me to finish bc this video was so entertaining
Edit: or maybe this was enough and I don’t need to see the rest of the book with my own eyes lol
babes I’m waiting in bated breath for your next video. mist n fury takes a huge ol turn imo,,, for better or for worse, idk, but definitely more entertaining than the first book. I don’t think I could read the first book again tbh, but the next ones are….interesting. I love your Nesta take tho. So many people in the acotar fandom hate her (for valid reasons prob) and love Feyre but nawt me ~ I love how you think Feyre is not very smart because I felt similarly looool she’s my least fav sjm protagonist by a lot. Anyways, you got a follow from meeee, great video
OMFG I JUST SAW U ALREADY POSTED AND TO SEE U ALREADY THINK ITS RADFEM NIGHTMARE
The next ones are even worse 😂
"I wish I knew what was going on"
"I do! Jump out the book and ask me!"
Quite literally my reading experience on the daily oh my godddddd
So she figured out at the last minute that tamlins heart was made of stone but couldn’t figure out the riddle.. right
Omg I thought I was the only one, because all my friends who read ACOTAR loved it. But I had the exact same perception as you reading this book. 💕
No, absolutely, I hate this book sm. The world building is info dumping in one glob of conversation?? Everyone looks the same, but not? Every male in this book is henry cavill with new hair. Every female is skinny, fair and flawlessly skined girl from wattpad 2014 ff. Amarantha slowly tortured clare as soon as she saw her, but with feyre she gives her a chance to prove herself first bc plot. Also why is Amarantha this magnificent, also flawlessly skinned, pale, snow-white-ish woman who, in my head, looks like feyre but new hair, instead of like a war brute with a heavy build seeing as she was one of the cruelest faeries in the war. WHY DO THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME. And her world building left the spring court feeling like a mansion on a grassy plane, with a forest a few steps away (just me?). The big bad fairy king just exists and is bad bc he's bad. The sexual tension between tamlin and feyre felt forced and, yes, assault-like. I cannot imagine someone consenting to a fxck-ready fairy after almost being rxped by three goblin-like fairies from the night-court just bc he's standing there and wants her *now*. Kudos to Lucien, the one with personality who was also my fav, I never made it past the first book sorry 🫠🫠🫠
I so agree with you on the world-building and the badly paced romance of Tamlin and Feyre. I only got interested in the book when she went to the trials. Literally was bored through the first 2/3 but I wanted to see why my friends loved it. I still don’t know. 😂
47:57 After the descriptions of these parties, this is where I couldn't stomach any more of it. It's just the way Maas writes the loss of bodily autonomy that feels at odds with what is depicted. There's a disonance between the things depicted and how it's depicted.
i read this book and i remember getting to the riddle and immediately going "its love" and then also immediately going "it's probably something else because that's just way too obvious the book isn't gonna be like that" and lo and behold. i was right and sjm is not as smart as she thinks she is.
It's sad just how much people uphold Rhysand as this perfect man when he is literally the embodiment of your really, really bad ex. And your friends abusive hubbies that hooked up when one was 15 and other 20. I swear Nesta is the only one sane, aside from Lucien. I would say that Tamlin is better then Rhys because Lucien calls the mf out on his behavior, while in the IC everyone worships the ground Rhys walk on. Rhys reminds me of friend hubbies definitely. Like everything is forgiven because they are handsome as heck, has big d, is rich. They don't see Feyre can have only friends Rhys approves off which is no one. He is literally cutting people close to her and those who can see him for who he really is. I swear to god Feyre not ending up with Lucien was a crime. She would be so lucky and it would be divergence from mate trop where best friend of potential love interest get's the protagonist.
Ngl the way miss Sarah writes her smut scenes reminds me of when I’m trying to find good M/M romance ( I’m a trans man) and I gotta like search super hard on kindle unlimited cause it’s all written by straight women writing under names that sound like it could be men like H. J Smith or whatever. She gives off the same energy with her scenes as them cause it just doesn’t seem like good sex? Like in some of the romances I’ve found they use wild shit like Vaseline as lube or god forbid none like good lord at least do some research before you write these I’m begging and praying lmao.
Idk I used to have a massive Sarah J mass kick a few years ago and the sex scenes are what is burned into my mind. The term “velvet wrapped steel” haunts me to this day. I liked some things in the books but I disliked more things than I liked so I stopped reading
@@obi-wan-pierogi
I resonate with you on the trying to find mlm books written by actual gay men part but VELVET WRAPPED STEEEEL?????!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!? 😭😭😭😭😭
@@o.g.186 yes 😭 idk why she chose that term to describe it it’s awful!
Love the books but I love the hear other perspectives too, this was hilarious!
Honestly, I think the only reason I managed to read past acotar was beacuse i was promised it gets better. Also the ending manged to peak my intrest somewhat. Had I read this independently? Without a couple trusted people telling me it gets better? I think I would have stopped reading sooner.
Im convinced people who love ACOTAR are people who dont read a lot lol. Like what. Also i read the riddle ans immediatly was like "its going to be some stupid shit like love isnt it" and when it was i howled with laughter. Like be fr bro 😩
Amarantha apparently makes bargains the same way as Barbossa from potc. Clearly Faera should have specified when and where!
I loved this review! I have not and have no intention of reading this series, but I love your energy enough to watch your reviews of the series. Now I have an idea of what my friends are talking about when they’re discussing this. 😂😂
oh my gosh, I felt the same way about the book!! After she went back to the human world I was getting so checked out 🥲 I bought the whole series when I was still really enjoying it in the beginning. now I'm thinking I ✨️should✨️ continue the series. your video is reminding me of all the random stuff that happened at the end of book one 😅
bruh you have that naturally comedic vibe. I love that LOL.
also ‘the worst book series’ I am endlessly curious to what your thoughts on the kingdom of the wicked trilogy would be.
I honestly commend anyone who can make it through this series. I was listening on audiobook while I was working so I got through acotar just because i was interested in how it ended. Couldn't get past chapter 15 in the second book. Was awful and the character assassination was insane
“A court of thorns and retcons” and subscribed
God I literally recorded and didn’t post a rant about this book and you said all the exact things I said right down to “Feyre is dumb AND NOT BECAUSE SHE CANT READ” lmfaoo
Could not even finish the first book I was so disgusted on so many levels. Great rant!
First 20 seconds and I can tell that this is going to be one hell of a video
One of my problems with this book was that none of the characters were fleshed out, and if they were it was poorly done. There are a lot of holes and twists that were just random and often caught me off guard. The series, to me felt, too… flat, predictable, and fast paced with certain parts and too slow on many others.
I read this book for the first time a few months ago. No disrespect to anyone who enjoys it, but I absolutely hated it. I found it so boring and predictable, and it was so long! It felt like two different stories smashed together, and I don’t think they blended well. For so many pages, not much happened.
Lucien is the best boy though.